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Confessions of a Bicycle Race Promoter

Fred Dreier — Thu, 19 Jun 2025 11:00:07 +0000

The Friday morning after Kevin Underhill crashed, I returned to the Driveway auto racetrack around 7 A.M. The track’s owner, Bill Dollahite, greeted me. How was I doing, he asked.

I had already told Bill that we’d had to transport Underhill to the hospital the previous night. It was important for the venue owner to know that there had been a serious crash, because he might need to speak with local media outlets about the incident. But Bill had already seen the blood on the race course. A car club would be using the track at 9 A.M., Bill reminded me. We needed to have the venue cleaned up and prepared for their arrival.

It was August 14, 2009, near the end of my first full eight-month season as the promoter and race director of the Driveway Series, a Thursday night road bike race at the far end of east Austin. I dumped PA cables, extension cords, and other equipment out of five-gallon buckets I’d been using as storage. I found a scrub brush and some Dawn dish soap, and went down to the tree-lined section of the track. I carried one bucket of clean water, one of soapy water.

I scrubbed the track for the next hour and a half, trying to get the blood stain out. I understood that the group of people Bill was hosting were paying for a premium experience. One of the members in the car club was a doctor from Austin’s Brackenridge Hospital, where we’d transported Underhill the previous evening. The doctor had finished a long overnight shift. We began to talk.

“Is Kevin going to be okay?” I asked. Because of medical privacy rules, the doctor couldn’t say much. He just told me, “I know you probably want to go home, but you should really go back to the hospital.”

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He Fell 200 Feet During a Trail Running Race—And Lived to Tell the Tale

POM Administrator — Sun, 18 May 2025 08:00:43 +0000

Stuart Terrill’s life forever changed in a blink of an eye during a competitive mountain running race this past summer.

On July 13, the 22-year-old from Crozet, Virginia, summited 11,000-foot Hidden Peak at Snowbird ski resort above Salt Lake City. He was an hour into the 8.7-mile serving double duty as the 2024 USA Track and Field Mountain Running Championships.

Terrill had just graduated from the University of Richmond, where he ran cross country and track and double-majored in leadership and communication. But he was no stranger to the trails. He won the in Fairfax, Virginia, in May, besting the competition by nearly a minute over the 10K course to earn his second straight collegiate trail running championship title.

As he crested Hidden Peak and started bombing down the other side, Terrill passed a competitor and lost control, sending him careening towards a cliff. Photographer Matt Johnson watched in horror, pivoting to try to catch Terrill before he fell. But he was too late. Terrill toppled over the edge and tumbled more than 200 feet down the jagged unforgiving terrain below.

“He swung wide to pass a runner. His momentum sent him barreling down towards me and I dropped my camera to try and grab him,” Johnson recalled in the resort’s incident report. “I heard his terrified screams as he went out of sight down the rocky gully. At this point I screamed for a medic and life flight because I wasn’t sure if he was going to even survive. It was rough. It was one of the most horrifying things I’ve ever witnessed.

Terrill suffered numerous broken bones—eight vertebrae, four ribs, his right collarbone, left wrist, right kneecap, and several bones in each of his feet—and was lucky to be alive. As his mangled body was taken away in a medical helicopter, all those on the scene could do was wonder: how did such a perilous accident happen?

In its safety advisories on its website and in emails to participants, the event warns that “it is imperative, for your safety, you follow precise path of flagging.” Terrill’s fall was not the result of a course-marking issue. He simply made a risky passing move at an unfortunate spot on the course.

“We are very familiar with the exact spot of his accident,” said Julian Carr, the race director of the Cirque Series. “We will place people as backstop in that exact corner to ensure no one ever has a fall in that spot ever again.”

Here are two views of the area where Stuart Terrill stumbled and fell about 200 feet down a steep section of the Cirque Series race course in Snowbird, Utah. (Terrill is not pictured in these images.) (Photo: Matt Johnson)

Mountain Running: A Contact Sport?

While many may be initially attracted to running (on the track and roads) precisely because of its relatively low-risk profile—no contact that could lead to a concussion, no explosive movements that could result in an acute injury—trail running, and in particular mountain running, is another matter. In fact, mountain running, a fast, explosive trail running discipline that usually involves running over rocky, uneven terrain and climbing and descending peaks, comes with considerable risk.

Many mountain running races take competitors along high cliffs and ridgelines with exposure, and down steep, off-trail descents through technical terrain. Minor falls are common, and sprained ankles, broken collarbones, and skin-devouring trail rash are among the most typical injuries.

Injuries are common enough that some races, including the Pikes Peak Marathon in Manitou Springs, Colorado, give out an award for the bloodiest runner. , a short mountain race in Seward Alaska, reports several minor injuries in a typical year. In 2012, it suffered its first presumed death when 66-year-old Michael LeMaitre, fell on a steep section of the course and, inexplicably, was never found.

Although it wasn’t a super-fast shorter-distance mountain running race, American runner survived one of the worst known trail running accidents in 2017 at the 57K Hamperokken Skyrace in the mountains outside of Tromso, Norway, after she tripped and ragdolled 150 feet down a ridge and broke both arms, two vertebrae, several ribs, and numerous bones in her feet. Like Terrill, she was lucky to have survived.

“We acknowledge the inherent dangers of producing races in the high alpine, injuries are rare, but do happen unfortunately,” Carr says. “This is, by far, the most serious injury at a Cirque race since we started our races in 2015. We take safety of our runners as first priority.”

Mountain running races bring on increased danger for highly competitive athletes, especially because the terrain is often extremely technical, varies so greatly, and is often raced sight-unseen. In addition, elite runners are often willing to take risks on high-consequence terrain that is the difference between performing well and getting left in the dust of those who do.

Is this risk taking an allure or a consequence of the sport? And what level of responsibility do race organizers play in keeping competitors safe?

Carr says the event’s emergency response plan is an integral part of planning and preparing for the event and it begins well in advance of race day.

“We put a lot of thought into our safety maps,” Carr says. “When we mark the course, I chat with our safety director about optimal EMT, patrol, and volunteer placements throughout the day. Once we finish marking course, we have a meeting to determine all safety personnel placements for the race. Then we generate the safety map. We provide digital copies and printed copies to all safety personnel for race day.”

Brendan Madigan, who operates the Broken Arrow Skyrace at Palisades Tahoe ski resort every June, says having multi-layer medical and risk teams is essential. Broken Arrow Skyrace, like the Cirque Series, goes to great lengths to organize emergency response teams with certified medical personnel and mountain rescue experts in key locations.

“We come from a much more dangerous world of ski mountaineering and climbing, so trail running might seem pretty vanilla compared to that, but you have to be organized and prepared,” Madigan says. “You’ve got to make sure you’re protecting everyone and have a consistent level of safety.”

Not All Trails Are Created Equally

Terrill isn’t new to trail running. In fact, he ran his first trail race in middle school—a mile and a half course with 100 feet of elevation gain in central Virginia. While running cross country and track at the University of Richmond, he also went on to win the Collegiate Trail Running National Championships in both 2023 and 2024.

As a junior in 2023, he took the national title at the Thunderbunny 11K trail race in Athens, Ohio, in 41:27, setting the course record by a minute and a half. That’s when he knew he had a thing for off-road running. Then this past May he repeated as national champ by winning the Fountainhead 10K++ Trail Run in Virginia, obliterating the course record by six and a half minutes in 44:55.

“I’ve always trained in hilly locations, and my stride worked well on trails,” Terrill says.

Those trail races were set on rolling singletrack courses through the forest. They didn’t have the exposure and steep profile of the race in Utah. Still, Terrill was eager to give it a try.

After graduating this spring, he was at a crossroads. He had one more season of cross country eligibility, which he intended on using as a graduate student at the University of Richmond. But he was also drawn to the idea of going all-in on trail running and trying to make the U.S. team for the final of the 2024 World Mountain Running Association World Cup in Italy this October. That required finishing first or second among a talented field of runners at the Snowbird race.

“I wanted to make the U.S. team. In the back of your mind, you don’t know how good everyone is before you compete,” Terrill says. “You have to try. Making a U.S. team, whether that’s on the trails or the track, representing the U.S.A. is my ultimate goal in the sport.”

If nothing else, he figured he’d get in some quality post-collegiate running experience while he figured out his next steps in running and life, as well as a fun trip out west.

In Over His Head

After driving out to Utah and previewing the start of the Snowbird course, Terrill felt on edge. The steep, exposed terrain looked nothing like the Virginia trails to which he was accustomed. He couldn’t decide if he wanted to treat the race as a training run and save himself for the cross country season, or alter his training to meet the specificity needed to do well on a high-alpine peak at altitude. He settled on aiming for the win in the collegiate division of the Utah race.

“The day before, I was checking out the course and got excited,” Terrill says. “‘It’s time to race.’ I wanted to race for the win. Workouts were going well.”

Those ambitions went out the window with the starting gun. Turns out, on rugged terrain is quite a bit different than x collegiate trail running on more mellow courses..

“These guys are built differently,” Terrill says of the competitive field, which included 2023 Speedgoat 50K champion Christian Allen and two-time Pikes Peak Marathon winner Seth Demoor. “It isn’t a track race.”

Right away, the lofty altitude and rugged terrain took their toll on Terrill. Hoofing it up the climb well behind race-leader Allen, he negotiated with himself. His goal became to finish without walking. Just make it up the hill and it will be a good 4-mile workout, he thought.

“I was further back [place-wise] in the race than I wanted to be,” Terrill says. “All I knew about the course is that it was technical in areas.”

Upon cresting the summit he got hit with a huge wave of energy. He started bombing down the technical terrain, which included loose dirt, rocks, and small boulders that grew steeper by the step.

“It’s super rocky and I was going too fast. All you can think about is putting one foot in front of the other. Stay upright,” Terrill recalls. “Reaching out towards the photographer’s arm, I thought, ‘I’m going to die here. I won’t get to say goodbye to my girlfriend, my parents. Those close to me are going to get a phone call, I’m dead.’”

A Selfless Act

, a professional trail runner from Boulder, Colorado, was racing ahead of Terrill when he witnessed the horrifying fall.

“I happened to look back right as it occurred and saw Terrill mid-air, completely out of control, before he landed on a boulder about 180 feet down,” Daniels remembers. “He then bounced off the boulder and continued to tumble down the mountain at incredible speed, still without any control, finally landing on the service road at the bottom, about 200-plus feet from where the fall started. It was the most gruesome fall I have ever witnessed.”

Daniels quickly took action and sacrificed his own race to help.

“I immediately ran off the course down to where he had landed to see if he was alive,” Daniels says. “At that moment, I thought there was no way he could have survived what I just witnessed.”

Terrill was conscious, but bleeding in several places and in obvious pain. Daniels couldn’t do much, but tried to provide a comforting voice.

“I was the first to arrive and was immediately taken aback by his condition and afraid to move him,” Daniels says. “Another woman [Megan Ross, an EMT] arrived shortly after, and we managed to prop his head up slightly as he regained consciousness and started working on stopping the bleeding.”

Within five minutes, members of Snowbird ski patrol assigned to the race and trained medical staff took over, applying first aid, checking vitals, and supporting Terrill with a spine board and cervical collar. Within about 30 minutes, he was airlifted by helicopter to the University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City.

“Life really does flash before your eyes,” Terrill says. “The next thing I remember was waking up in the hospital.”

Terrill says he knew the moment before he fell that he was about to tumble head-first over the steep ledge and be in serious trouble. (Photo: Courtesy of Stuart Terrill)

The Safety Dance

While race organizers obviously can’t prevent accidents from happening, there are concrete steps they can (and generally do) take to mitigate risk, including trail maintenance, adding guardrails and safety officials at cruxes, and having open communication lines and an emergency response team at the ready. In fact, such measures are often required to get race permitting in the first place, although safety requirements and protocols vary from state to state. But an effective emergency response plan can be the difference between life and death.

Indeed, Carr and his team’s detailed planning most likely saved Terrill’s life.

“We printed safety maps and provided them to all EMTs, volunteers, and Snowbird ski patrol,” Carr said. “Prior to the race, our Safety Director, Wilderness Medicine lead, and Snowbird ski patrol met to discuss radio and injury protocol. We placed EMTs and volunteers in positions to efficiently locate injured runners. Ski patrol was on standby for any major medical occurrences.”

Carr said he is proud of the quick response of his emergency and medical teams. EMT staff located in key positions along with Snowbird ski patrol positioned at Hidden Peak, were able to quickly get Terrill the emergency care he needed.

“I pride Cirque Series in being very prepared for major and minor medical injuries,” Carr says. “Our EMTs and Snowbird patrol arrived to Stuart in very efficient time, just like we train.”

A New Outlook

Anyone who has run in a trail race knows the trail running community is special. Even though it’s growing, it still feels small and tight-knit. Race winner Allen, a Salt Lake City local, came to visit Terrill in the hospital, even though the two had never met.

“There is something special about runners,” Terrill said. “In eighth grade I passed a guy in a cross country race. After the race he thanked me for pushing him. In what other sport do you get that? The trail community is like that times two.”

Stuart Terrill was diligent his rehab he was back in Virginia and received clearance from his doctors to walk and run. (Photos: Courtesy of Stuart Terrill)

Terrill badly smashed and cut his face during the fall and needed several staples help secure cuts on his head, but doctors determined that he didn’t suffer a concussion or brain damage. He spent two weeks in the hospital before going back home to Virginia.

He wasn’t able to walk on his own for a month. Instead, he had to endure two full knee immobilizers for four weeks, then a singular knee brace for eight weeks, and a back brace for six weeks. He focused on doctor-prescribed rehab;running miles were replaced by slow walking.

“It took me 40 minutes to do one mile. I felt so proud. It gave me a new respect for movement,” he says. “I’m grateful to be alive.”

And grateful is a good word to express Terrill’s unwavering optimism post-fall. When asked why he thinks he fell, he reflects candidly. “Because I’m a rookie,” he admits. “But, maybe there is a reason. It gave me a different outlook on life. It gave me a new appreciation for being outside, being able to walk.”

“I sprained my right wrist two months before this happened. I complained so much,” Terrill jokes. “That seemed harder than all this.”

Terrill returned to the University of Richmond in the fall and served as a graduate assistant coach for the Spiders cross country program. Amid continued rehab, he ran his first steps 11 weeks post-accident at the beginning of October, in the controlled setting of an Alter-G anti-gravity treadmill. In January he’ll be enrolling at Wake Forest, where he’ll pursue graduate studies and begin a long, slow progression into his final year of collegiate cross country in the fall.

Carr and his team kept in touch with Terrill’s coach about his recovery after he returned to Virginia, and they also shipped him a get-well-soon package.

“We wish him an ongoing speedy recovery. We’re so glad he’s expected to make a full recovery,” Carr says. “We hope to see him a future Cirque Series race.”

After he uses up his NCAA eligibility at the end of the 2026 track season, Terrill says he’ll definitely continue running, whether competitively or just for fun. He might even return to trail racing, at least the kind with tamer, less technical terrain.

But as he builds back into the sport, he’s confronted with the obvious question: is the risk and reward of mountain running worth it, given what he’s gone through?

For Terrill, the answer is easy. “I’ll stay on flat ground,” he says. “Even seeing pictures of people running on cliffs freaks me out.”

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Stuart Terrill says he might still run trail races similar to the Fountainhead 10K trail race in Fairfax Station, Virginia—where he won his second consecutive collegiate trail running title last May—but he’ll avoid fast-paced mountain running races on rugged, exposed courses. (Photo: Brian W. Knight/Swim Bike Run Photo)

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The 2024 ��ԹϺ��rs of the Year

jversteegh — Tue, 03 Dec 2024 12:30:40 +0000

Thirteen adventurers, athletes, and renegades who pushed boundaries, toppled barriers, and shook up the outdoors

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How to Come Up with a Good ��ԹϺ��

jversteegh — Sat, 02 Nov 2024 09:00:54 +0000

(All illustrations: Brendan Leonard)

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Is Lindsey Vonn Planning a World Cup Comeback?

POM Administrator — Sat, 19 Oct 2024 08:00:05 +0000

Lindsey Vonn, the legendary ski racer with 2.4 million Instagram followers, has been dropping hints that have fans buzzing: Could a return to World Cup racing be in the works?

“It’s been an incredible past few weeks,” she posted recently. “Being back in the mountains is where I find so much joy. It’s my natural habitat…even if I hate being cold lol.”

Then she added, “Excited to share more .”

The ski legend, who turns 40 on Friday, had a knee replacement last spring and can finally live without ever-present pain. In a recent post from the gym, she shared, “Leveled up this summer and it’s paying off… can’t wait to get back to my happy place on the mountain.”

With posts like these, Vonn has sparked rumors. Is she planning a return to World Cup racing? Like Marcel Hirscher, Vonn could apply for a World Cup “Wild Card” spot. (Hirscher, 35, holds a record eight overall World Cup titles and retired in 2019.)

Vonn poses in Are, Sweden in 2019 after the race with the medals of her career.

Why Lindsey Vonn Might Return to World Cup Ski Racing

According to FIS’s rulebook, a wild card can be granted to athletes who have won either a World Cup overall globe, an event globe (under the condition of a minimum of five World Cup victories), or an individual Olympic or world championship gold medal. Vonn certainly meets all those qualifications. Additionally, the wild card rule states, “The athlete who requests a Wild Card must be retired from the World Cup Tour for two or more years (Official FIS Retirement form and WADA date record), but not more than ten years.”

Once again, Vonn checks all the boxes.

Her team will only confirm that she “underwent a partial knee replacement in April. She has been recovering well since then and her knee feels incredible. She was cleared to ski and has begun a return to skiing progression.”

But is Vonn truly considering a World Cup return?

Vonn’s Knee: A Game Changer?

Before we dive into the possibility of a comeback, it’s essential to understand how Vonn’s knee surgery has transformed her ability to ski pain-free. Bedeviled by crashes and injuries during her 19-year-long World Cup career, Vonn’s knees took the brunt of the damage. She had “severe tri-compartment degeneration” in her right knee, with the lateral compartment causing the most pain. In July 2023, she had surgery in an attempt to hold off knee replacement.

“But I got to the point where it was too much, and my knee could not handle doing the things I love to do,” she wrote on Instagram on April 9, 2024, the day of her knee replacement surgery.

Vonn soon rehabbed her new knee and was back in the gym, ramping up her workouts. This fall, she was back on snow, skiing in New Zealand.

Vonn won the Women’s World Cup Downhill Crystal Globe trophy after the Women’s Downhill Race on March 16, 2016 in St Moritz, Switzerland. (Photo: Matthias Hangst/Getty Images)

Why a Comeback Might Appeal to Vonn

Vonn retired from ski racing after the 2019 world championships, not because she wanted to, but because she was constantly in pain.

“It’s been an emotional two weeks making the hardest decision of my life, but I have accepted that I cannot continue ski racing,” she posted on Instagram at the time.

She wasn’t upset about retiring, but what troubled her was not reaching her goal of equaling or surpassing Ingemar Stenmark’s record of 86 World Cup wins.

“However, I can look back at 82 World Cup wins, 20 World Cup titles, 3 Olympic medals, 7 World Championship medals and say that I have accomplished something that no other woman in HISTORY has ever done, and that is something that I will be proud of FOREVER!” she added in the same Instagram post.

Since then, Mikaela Shiffrin has raised the World Cup win record to 97 (and counting). While Vonn would be hard-pressed to catch Shiffrin, returning to the World Cup to retire on her terms would give Vonn some closure.

Even more enticing, the women finally get to race a World Cup downhill and super-G on Beaver Creek’s Birds of Prey course—where Vonn won bronze in super-G at the 2015 world championships. And next winter, Cortina is hosting the women’s alpine events at the 2026 Olympic Winter Games. Vonn scored her first World Cup podium on Cortina’s Tofana downhill course and broke the women’s World Cup win record there in 2017. Over her career, Vonn won 12 downhills and super-G races at Cortina.

As Vonn wrote in her book Rise, she has always been motivated by doubters. A return to World Cup racing would not be a complete surprise.

Salt Lake City-Utah 2034 delegation members two-time Paralympian Dani Aravich and Vonn celebrate as the Salt Lake City-Utah 2034 win the bid to host the 2034 Winter Olympic Games. (Photo: Arturo Holmes/Getty Images)

Is Lindsey Vonn Just Enjoying Skiing Without Pain?

Or is it more likely that Vonn is simply happy to be back enjoying the slopes without pain in her knee?

If we closely follow her Instagram posts from the summer, Vonn is thrilled to be leading the active lifestyle that she has always dreamed about—playing tennis, riding her bike, and even surf foiling without debilitating pain. And in late August, she announced that she would be skiing with guests at the private Three Forks Ranch resort in Wyoming for two weeks in late February and early March—not exactly the kind of commitment someone would make if the World Cup tour were on her radar.

Earlier this week, Vonn posted from New Zealand: “With this new knee that is now a part of me… I feel like a whole new chapter of my life is unfolding before my eyes. My adventurous spirit feels full of gratitude. To do the things you love to do is truly a blessing and I don’t take it for granted.”

While we may be reading too much into her posts, she concluded, “I don’t know exactly what lies ahead, but I know I’m healthy, happy, and grateful.”

The Verdict

Though Vonn certainly has the credentials to qualify for a World Cup wild card, returning to the circuit after five years would present significant challenges. Not only would she face competition from younger racers, but regaining top-level fitness after multiple knee surgeries could be a hurdle. Still, if anyone has the determination and grit to do it, it’s Lindsey Vonn.

What do you think? Could Lindsey Vonn be gearing up for one last World Cup race? Stay tuned for more updates from SKI.

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Do You Actually Need Super Shoes to Run Your Best?

jversteegh — Sun, 29 Sep 2024 13:00:56 +0000

I’m getting ready for my first marathon in the fall, and I am trying to dial in my kit. I keep hearing about these “super shoes” people use for racing, but they’re expensive, and I don’t know if I should switch to something new for race day. Do I need to buy a super shoe to run my best? —Newbie Distance Runner

Dear Newbie,

Super shoes are no doubt attractive. The lightweight racers with ultra-bouncy foam and embedded carbon plates have been shown to enable some athletes to reach higher speeds with less effort.

Could a super shoe help you run slightly faster and easier than you would in a standard trainer or racer? Yes. Probably. Maybe. It’s complicated.

A Nike super shoe from 2023 (Photo: Michael Reaves/Getty Images)

If you’re a sub-seven-minute-mile marathoner, you’ve established serious training habits and built a strong, athletic stride. And in that pace range, the research says you’ll likely get a 3 or 4 percent improvement in running economy from the shoes. This is why no elite runner would toe the line in anything but a super shoe.

But as a first-time marathoner, do you need that edge? Will it be impossible for you to accomplish your goals without these shoes’ performance-enhancing benefits? No, absolutely not. And there are some good reasons why you might not want to invest in a super shoe.

Research on the benefits for slower runners is mixed. One data analysis of slower marathoners showed time improvements—even greater than among faster runners—after adopting super shoes. In contrast, a controlled study revealed that the slower the runner, the lower the boost in running economy, with 9:40-mile runners seeing only about 1 percent improvement.

Still, any help is appreciated in the marathon, and some experts believe that the real advantage may have more to do with the shoes’ ability to reduce muscle breakdown and fatigue than with improvements in efficiency. If super shoes make finishing strong more likely, they might be worth the $250-plus price tag.

Be aware, however, that nearly a third of the slower runners in the same study showed a decrease in running economy—the shoes made running harder, not easier. Other studies have found even greater variability in runner response.

This is partially due to the fine-tuned bounce and roll of a super shoe’s midsole and plate. Every runner’s stride is unique and interacts with the shoe differently. When we staged a ��ԹϺ�� Online—with three runners comparing 16 different super shoes head-to-head—we found that a shoe that felt magical to one runner often went clunk on another.

Even if a shoe seems good when you are fresh and running strong, it might not be what you want on your foot when you start to tire. Super shoes exacerbate any stride imbalances because of a trampoline-like action that magnifies all forces and movements, for better or worse. Can you maintain the even posture and powerful push-off that a super shoe requires over 26.2 miles? A tall, wobbly platform isn’t what anyone wants when doing the marathon shuffle. For slower, first-time marathoners, the risk of a super shoe impeding their efforts may not be worth the meager potential reward, especially at these prices.

If you decide to go with a super shoe, be sure to test out multiple models to find one that enhances your natural gait rather than changing it or, worse, fighting against it.

Regardless of what you choose for race day, remember that the first rule of marathoning is to dance with the one who brought you: if in doubt, go with old friends—your favorite tried-and-true trainers. Nothing different. Nothing new. Any change opens you up to the possibility of blisters, an altered stride that causes you to fatigue faster, even injury. If you want to wear a specialty shoe, start using it far enough in advance that you’ve adapted to it by race day. Gradually add miles over eight to twelve weeks, building up to several solid marathon-pace runs and at least one long run.

Marathon success depends far more on factors like how well you trained, how well you hydrate and fuel, and how the weather gods treat you than on which shoes you wear. In the end, the best shoes are the ones that get out of the way and quietly let your fitness shine.

Have a question of your own? Send it to us at deargear@outsideinc.com.

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Melisa Rollins Finally Won the Race That Shaped Her Pro Cycling Career

POM Administrator — Sat, 17 Aug 2024 09:30:58 +0000

Certain bike races can change riders’ lives. But usually it’s the result—a yellow jersey, a gold medal, a set of rainbow stripes—that persists. The race itself blurs into the background.

For , one particular race has always been in sharp focus. Now, she has a result to make it even brighter.

Rollins won the on Saturday, August 10, 2024, after lining up at the 105-mile race for the seventh time. For years, her goal was simply to better her previous year’s time.

In 2021, she achieved that, and more. After finishing sixth she signed her first pro contract with Virginia’s Blue Ridge Twenty24.

It was for all of these reasons—not to mention the 12,000 feet of climbing in Colorado’s dry, oxygen-starved air—that Rollins couldn’t contain her emotions at the finish line on Saturday.

Rollins embracing a good friend at the finish (Photo: Marc Arjol Rodriguez/VeloPhoto)

“Leadville is much more than a race to me,” she said. “It’s my cycling origin story, my purpose when I don’t feel like training. It’s my why.”

Now, with her Twenty24 contract up at the end of the season, Rollins hopes that the shiny result at the race that has changed her life will keep the momentum going.

Road Racing En Route to the Dirt

Rollins’ Leadville story begins well before she ever did the race. Her parents, mom Lisa Nelson and stepdad Elden, have now finished the Leadville 100 18 and 26 times, respectively. When Rollins first signed up for the race in 2016, “a 20-year-old college student who wanted to pick up an outdoorsy hobby,” they became her training partners.

“We’d go on long rides on the weekends and I would do nothing during the week,” Rollins said laughing. “That was training then.”

Her first year, Rollins finished in 10:12:14, well outside of the sub-nine hour threshold needed to receive the race’s iconic ‘big’ sterling silver belt buckle.

Nevertheless, she was hooked.

Rollins raced Leadville again in 2017, and in 2018 she completed the Lead Challenge, which consists of doing five of the race series’ running and riding events, including the monster 100-mile running race.

In 2021, she had her best result to date, finishing sixth. The next day, she completed SBT GRVL, a 144-mile gravel race in Steamboat Springs. That put her second overall in the for riders doing both the Leadville 100 and SBT GRVL.

Rollins on the second step of the 2022 women’s LeadBoat podium (Photo: Ben Delaney)

Then, Nicola Cranmer of called.

Rollins signed a two-year contract with the squad and dove into the deep end. Twenty24 has always been a women’s development team with an Olympics focus. Most of its riders focus on road and track cycling, but Rollins joined with an understanding that she’d race across disciplines. In 2022, she was accepted into the Life Time Grand Prix, a seven-race mixed gravel and mountain-bike series that includes the Leadville 100.

Rollins had two standout results in the series that year—fifth at Unbound Gravel and 10th at Leadville, but otherwise placed “around 15th, sometimes better, sometimes worse,” she said. “I wanted to be at the front end, but I didn’t know what that took.

Enter Cranmer, who has helmed the Twenty24 squad since its inception in 2005.

“Nicola said, ‘you signed onto this road team, let’s see if road racing will do that for you,” Rollins said.

Before Rollins joined Twenty24, she’d never raced on the road. “My background was … Leadville,” she said. Over the past three years she has logged thousands of hours on the road, racing one-days, crits, and stage races. This year, she even skipped Unbound Gravel to do the 11-day Tour of America’s Dairyland.

Rollins’ descends the singletrack with Gomez Villafañe trailing (Photo: Tilly Shull)

In the process, Rollins’ chipped away at all of the skills necessary to become a good bike racer. She built up her aerobic capacity, learned how to hold a wheel, ride in a paceline, and attack. And despite her initial hesitation to spend so much time racing on the road with her sights set on mountain bike and gravel, after Saturday’s result Rollins knows it was well worth it.

“I think I won Leadville because I know how to road race,” she said. “I think it was imperative. Making the winning selection was about being in a good position going down Powerline and then being able to descend well.”

Sofia Gomez Villafañe, who was second on the day in Leadville, is Rollins’ friend and training partner back home in Utah. She has watched the 28-year-old go from a strong rider “who has put me in the box plenty of times,” to a well-rounded racer with a keen eye for tactics.

“Being on the team taught her to look at a race from different angles,” Gomez Villafañe said. “On a team your job isn’t always to win, it’s to protect a rider, to chase down breaks. So she’s put herself in different roles in a race in pursuit of team goal. It gives you a better understanding of racing, how attacking works, and what tips and tricks you an have up your sleeve.

“It’s pretty special for her to then have the opportunity to go for a result for herself and show, ‘I am good and I deserve to be here.’”

Gomez Villafañe congratulates Rollins at the finish (Photo: Tilly Shull)

It was on the climb up to Columbine, the race’s high point, on Saturday, that Rollins started realize what was possible. She started the climb with Gomez Villafañe and Michaela Thompson (who would later finish third), telling herself “just follow wheels, don’t overdo it.” Eventually, she went off the front of the group.

“It wasn’t a pointed move, I just wanted to see what would happen if I upped the pace,” she said.

Rollins continued to climb strongly, moving through the back of the elite men’s field. Ultimately, it was the Life Time helicopter, hovering over and then whizzing away, that keyed her in to what was happening in the race behind her.

“I could hear the helicopter doubling back really far, so I could kind of assess from that that it was pretty good,” she said.

Rollins went on to win the race solo, four minutes ahead of Gomez Villafañe and 43 minutes better than her previous best finish. She said that she never let her guard down, convinced that the two other woman were going to catch her on the Powerline climb.

The lead moto that wouldn’t go away (Photo: Tilly Shull)

Even days after the race, she was having trouble believing what had happened, despite the fact that she’d dedicated her entire year to achieving such a goal. In April, she quit her full-time job as a chemist at a research lab, taking a “leap of faith and a massive pay cut.”

“It’s almost like I had to win because I wanted it so badly,” she said.

Rollins only has a few days to let the victory sink in before she toes the line again at SBT GRVL on August 18. Initially, she’d planned the race as sort-of a back-up plan, in case things didn’t go well at Leadville. Now, while she’ll race to win, it’s must more of a joy ride than a back-up plan.

As for what lies beyond, Rollins said she’s been in touch with some other teams and sponsors but hasn’t solidified anything yet. She hopes to do more mountain bike racing but also doesn’t want to lose the edge she’s gained on the road. Mainly, she wants to keep the momentum going.

After all, Leadville the race changed her life. Now, Leadville the result may as well.

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The Olympic Athletes Being Required to Take Drugs

jversteegh — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 11:00:06 +0000

Since the beginning of women’s sports, a question has loomed: who qualifies as female? Tested follows the unfolding story of elite female runners who have been told they can no longer race as women, because of their biology. As the Olympics approach, they face hard choices: take drugs to lower their natural testosterone levels, give up their sport entirely, or fight. This episode asks: Would you alter your body for the chance to compete for a gold medal?

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Experience Frontier Culture at America’s Oldest Endurance Horse Race

jversteegh — Mon, 29 Jul 2024 10:00:18 +0000

The Western States Trail Ride, also known as the Tevis Cup, was born in 1955 out of a simple question: Could modern-day riding horses travel 100 miles in 24 hours? Several riders set out from Lake Tahoe, California, and journeyed southwest through the Sierra Nevada to the town of Auburn, proving the answer to be a strong yes. In the years and decades that followed, equestrians would retrace the trip as an annual race, testing themselves on a grueling route with more than 35,000 feet of elevation change along rugged mountain trails.

Damien Maloney, a Los Angeles–based photographer, learned about the event from a neighbor and was drawn to the competition’s Old West ethos, so different from the strict equestrian tradition he knew growing up in Waco, Texas. “It was interesting to see a horse culture that isn’t fussy or fancy,” says Maloney. “It’s humans and horses, and everyone’s having fun, but it’s still really hard. There isn’t any pageantry.” In the summer of 2023, he set out to document that unpretentious spirit, capturing horses and people as they navigated the dusty trails.

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The Battle for Swimming’s Suits and Running’s Soul

jversteegh — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 11:00:15 +0000

When a technological breakthrough gives some athletes a major advantage, how should we think about the victories, the medals, the world records? Is new technology unfair? Is it cool? Does it matter which sport it affects? In this episode ��ԹϺ��’s running correspondent, Fritz Huber, travels to the Nike Sport Research Lab to try to figure out why some sports embrace new technology, and others ban it.

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